Ive been using odesk for about a year with good success. You will find that most odesk providers are from outside of the US and very cost effective. Here are my suggestions if your going to use odesk.
1- Do NOT pay anything upfront.
2- Depending on your project, try to do a flat fee if you can. Sometimes the pay per hour can get out of hand. If you do have an hourly project this work does allow you to get screen shots of the work as it is completed in real time so you can keep an eye on the persons progress and keep track of the work they are doing for you.
3- Do NOT hire anyone that doesnt have any feedback or not enough positive feedback.
4- Set a definite time frame for the project and make sure its understood when the project needs to be completed.
5- Interview the candidates via skype prior to hiring them.
6- You can always post a test project, hire 3-5 people for this project, then move forward with the person that performs best during the trial period.
Right now I have a few wordpress developers and I pay them around $8-9 an hour. I have a video guy that will edit and watermark a 5 min video for $8. I have a flyer guy that will create professional looking flyers for $6.
I have found some great providers on odesk and it is MUCH less expensive than most of the other outsourcing sites. You can even search through the providers and offer them work directly through odesk instead of just posting a job and waiting for people to apply. Look for the people with very possitive feedback and a work history that matches your needs. The providers also have portfolios you can review.
Sure, there are some loosers on odesk, but, you need to manage your people. The staff at odesk are very responsive. I had a few problems with a few providers on odesk and the support took care of the problems and even credited my account for the work that I disputed.
